


we dreamt of the sea and jumped together

by ForestFish



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Cheesy, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gift Fic, Late Night Conversations, M/M, Not Beta Read, Poetry, Some Humor, Tanka poem, bisexualhotchner, first name basis, late night fic, silly boys in love, wish it was a better gift but then i'd have to be better too lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:35:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27319357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForestFish/pseuds/ForestFish
Summary: Taiga has some homework to do for the following day which involves writing a tanka poem. He's not a particularly good wordsmith. The night is balmy and inviting and Daiki is asleep on his bed. They have been going out for a while but the words mean too much and Taiga is afraid. He's thinking about the sea.
Relationships: Aomine Daiki/Kagami Taiga
Comments: 3
Kudos: 41





	we dreamt of the sea and jumped together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bisexualhotchner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisexualhotchner/gifts).



> Right, so I wanted to write something for my homie's birthday to return just a shard of what he gave me for mine. This is like giving the consolation prize that you fished out of a crane machine to someone who gave you a rare gem found after a long Indiana Jones-like quest. But it's what I can do. It's Aokaga because I wanted to play it safe and while I know you also ship aokise, I felt like you like Aokaga more so I went for them. Sorry this is just some silly cheesy fluff. Full of typos at that, no doubt because I can't proof for shit and I wrote this in maybe 2 and a half hours and it's 2:24am now. I wanted to have it ready for your birthday, V. I hope it's at least mildly enjoyable despite the writing. And this messy title. Took me over half an hour to come up with one and that's all I could do. Goddamn. Just making excuses at this point, sorry.  
> It's here and it's felt with all its flaws and typos and cheesiness. I wanted to give you something. It may be a bit self-indulgent because I love the sea and write poems (I actually wrote that poem but it didn't take me as long as it'd have taken Kagami). Anyway. That's all I gotta say on the morning of All Hallows Day. Love you, man. Thank you for being born.

* * *

The sea was unpredictable and wild, yet quiet and gentle, and Taiga liked that about it. He wasn’t much of a poet though. That was supposed to be an easy piece of homework. They’d covered traditional Japanese poetry and conventions and they had to write a tanka poem.

“It’s easy, Kagami-kun. Five verses. Thirty-one syllables. Five syllables, then seven, then five again, and the last two are seven again.”

Easy, Kuroko had said. _Easy_. Sure. Easy if you were good with words and he wasn’t. Words were tricky and they either meant too much or nothing at all.

He’d been staring at that blank piece of paper for over an hour and had gotten up several times, pacing the room and huffing.

“Easy my ass.” He whispered, frustrated getting up again and walking up to the open window. The night was warm, and the balmy breeze invited him to go out walk down to Tokyo Bay to swim or something. He’d been warned that the water there wasn’t very clean and swimming there wasn’t recommended. Shonan was good and Miura, too, but not Tokyo Bay. Either way, it was past 11pm so going out there was a pretty dumb idea anyway. His frustration was making him lose his mind. It had been a while since he’d last swam at sea and it was ironic, since he was living on a literal island now. Why was he even thinking about the sea?

“Oh…” he muttered seeing the neighbour on a balcony in the building across him also shirtless and in his underwear only but smoking. He gestured in his direction and Taiga gestured back, acknowledging his presence. Random encounters.

It was one of those nights. Warm, clear and fuzzy. The starlight in the big city was dimmed by the electric light pollution. He’d seen the stars in the countryside and the difference was jarring.

And he was there, thinking about the sea and the stars when he had to write some poem for a stupid class because he needed those damn points, if he wanted to stay in the team.

And he didn’t want to wake him in his frustration.

_Daiki._

He wasn’t the one with homework to do and he was sleeping peacefully on his bed. Taiga glanced at his sleeping, partially covered form on the bed. The furrow between his brows vanished when he slept and the glowing light of the world outside his window casted shadows upon his skin. Daiki curled up a bit when he slept and held onto his pillow.

He was beautiful and almost angelic when he slept. When he was awake sometimes he was hard to handle and aggravating but Taiga felt so much for him that he could endure it. Then he was sweet and protective, and Taiga had to hold himself back from feeling too much. Why was he so scared? Swimming too far into his feelings for Aomine Daiki scared him. And his light was blinding.

The night came to him then and flooded him with the dim light of the city sky and the longing for the sea.

It’d been right there the whole time and he whimsically went for it.

He sat down and that’s when he started writing. The hard part was getting the syllables right, but he had it in his mind and could channel it into his pencil. There were several attempts and plenty of erasing, but writing was like that. Trial and error. Then he was done, and he wanted to finally go to bed and join his sleeping boyfriend but things seldom go as we plan.

“Why the hell are you still up?” He heard his grumpy, sleepy and deep voice.

“Homework.”

“Still?” Daiki groaned glancing at the digital clock on Taiga’s beside table. It was past 1am “I thought it was, um…” he yawned and mused, clearly not remembering what it was. He rolled onto his back and the sheet that had been covered slid off him and he was as dressed as when he was born “don’t remember.”

“It’s a poem.” Taiga said quietly “It’s done though, finished it just now. Sorry to wake you up.”

“’s fine, you didn’t.” Daiki said hoarsely “What poem?”

“For Japanese class. Tanka.”

Daiki was silent lying on his back with an arm over his forehead, staring at the open window.

“Hm… what about?”

Taiga felt his cheeks warm up thinking about having to read it to him and was annoyed that he suddenly cared about poetry. Specifically, _his_ poetry. He wasn’t even a damn poet and it was past 1 in the godforsaken morning.

“About the sea” Taiga grumbled and huffed “go back to sleep, I’ll join you in a bit. Just need to put this away.”

“The sea, uh?” Daiki mumbled and Taiga wanted to slap someone. Was this dumbass serious? He was lying naked on his bed and he felt chatty all of the damn sudden. He wasn’t known for being unpredictable with no good reason but come on “I was dreaming about it.”

_What?_

“You, you were?”

“Yeah…” Daiki inhaled deeply and fixed his half-lidded eyes on Taiga “and you were there… I was there and, and uh…” he closed his eyes to bring the memories of the dream back “I swam into it… and there were crayfish there” he snorted “that was weird, crayfish are freshwater things… maybe that’s why I wanted to get them… and you were at the beach” he continued “but didn’t want to come in, no matter how much I called… uh, then I woke up…”

Taiga stared at his naked form, illuminated by the dim light from the window and orange hues of the light of his desk lamp.

“That was a nightmare?” He observed.

“Yeah, I guess…”

“That’s why you woke up.”

Daiki nodded pulling the sheet over himself again which was nice of him since seeing him naked was getting a little too distracting.

“The poem though.”

“What about it?”

“Can I hear it?”

“Why?” Taiga asked, frustrated. Daiki snorted.

“Why not?”

_Because it was embarrassing. Because Taiga had made it too personal. Because Taiga had written it about him._

Plenty of reasons but none that he could actually tell him, so he had no choice but grab the piece of paper with his messy handwriting, suck it up and recite his poem to his boyfriend.

“Don’t laugh.”

“No promises.” Daiki said with a cheeky little sleepy smile. Taiga glared “Joking. Read on, I won’t laugh.”

Taiga gulped and then sighed, his heart pounding and his stomach clenching but he read on.

_“The sea beckons me_

_Immense and deep, wild and sweet_

_I fear and love him_

_In the balmy night I dream_

_That I'm forever with him”_

He finished reciting the poem and felt his cheeks burning. His hands were shaking when he dared look up at him. Daiki was staring back, not laughing but now fully awake. There was silence and it was heavy and loaded. There was a lot there and it was late, and both were tired in a weird alert way.

“It’s about the sea…” Daiki said at last breaking the silence, his voice quiet and soft “sounds like my dream… a bit… kind of… uh, I left some things out…”

“Yeah…” Taiga muttered, not addressing the rest of what he’d said. Daiki was silent again, thinking and Taiga hated it. _Fuck,_ he should have shut up, said he was watching porn or something _but no_. He’d gone and done it, like an idiot.

“You referred to the sea as ‘him’.” Daiki pointed out and Taiga sighed, nodding. He didn’t know what to say really. He wasn’t even that good with words. He was just tired and queer and in love.

He froze, staring.

_Oh._

_He was in love._

“They, uh, they usually refer to it as ‘her’, in texts and stuff.” Daiki said and Taiga knew he was right. Daiki liked history and every other document about seafaring had someone referring to the sea in the feminine for whatever reason. Everyone would notice his own pronoun choice but frankly, he didn’t give a shit.

“Fuck it” Taiga muttered and put the sheet between the pages of his textbook before shoving it in his schoolbag “that’s how I wrote it and that’s how I’ll turn it in.”

“Okay…” Daiki said watching Taiga walk over to his window again and slide it closed before turning off the desk lamp. The only light in the room now was the yellowish light through the glass of the window. Taiga flopped beside Daiki on his bed and sighed deeply rolling to the side. Daiki rolled to the side as well to face him, looking at him in the eyes. There was enough light for them to see each other’s eyes.

“Can I ask something stupid?” Daiki asked quietly after a moment of silence.

“You’re good at that.” Taiga teased a little and Daiki snorted, smacking his shoulder with the back of his hand softly.

“I’m serious.”

“Go on.” Taiga mumbled and clenched his fists. His chest was tight, and his stomach was clenched in fear.

“Is the poem about me?”

Taiga groaned onto his pillow, unable to stop himself from reacting like that.

“What if it is?” He asked, a bit too aggravated. Daiki didn’t respond immediately and instead reached out his hand and placed it on Taiga’s chest, over his heart. Taiga wasn’t expecting it but knew why. He reached his own out and did the same to him, out of both reflex and revenge.

Their anxiety was synchronised.

“In my dream” Daiki said quietly, his deep voice reverberating in his chest under Taiga’s hand “you wouldn’t come because you said you were scared… I asked of what and you said” he paused and sighed softly “ _’that you love me, Daiki’_.”

Taiga stared and the hand on his own chest dropped to the mattress and Daiki sighed.

“I’m scared too, Taiga… but I think I’m in too deep already…” he mumbled, and it was his tired brain just being honest. Taiga’s own hand stayed where it was before he slid it up and placed it on Daiki’s cheek. That surprised him a bit, the tenderness of it, maybe. Unlike them. They’d been avoiding it and Taiga was just now realising that.

“So am I” Taiga whispered “and we’re really dumbasses…” he snorted seeing Daiki’s eyes, his honest blue eyes “being scared of words is dumb.”

“Yeah.”

“So who’ll say it first?” Taiga snorted.

“Guess you already beat me to it.” Daiki smiled “In that tanka poem of yours.”

Taiga felt a smile bloom on his own face. There was no more fear and he’d beat Daiki on that one.

“But I’ll beat you to saying the actual words to your face.” Daiki said smiling cheekily. Taiga gasped and opened his mouth, but Daiki was faster “I love you, Taiga.”

“Damn.” Taiga complained and scrunched his nose before scooting closer to his boyfriend who was now chuckling softly in the dim light of the room. He put his arm around Daiki’s neck and kissed his warm smiling lips “I love you too, Daiki.” He said when he pulled away and looked at his eyes “I really do, dumbass.”

“You’re the dumbass. Writing a poem instead of saying it.” He whispered and pecked his lips, putting an arm around his waist and pulling him closer “So cheesy.” He teased.

“It was my homework, asshat.” Taiga grumbled and kissed the amusement in his boyfriend’s lips.

“Oh, so writing love poems about me was your homework? That’s rich.” Daiki grinned into the kisses he was getting and were warming them both more than that warm weather. Their chests were full, and their minds were at peace. They felt like they could finally be true with each other. Though, of course, the bickering would never end.

It had taken them forever to accept that their thing wasn’t just a long-lasting fling. But then again, they were known for their brightness on the court, not off it.

“Shut up and go back to sleep.” Taiga groused half-heartedly and sighed as Daiki chuckled into his lips.

Words could be tricky to get out, especially if they were brimming with sweet yet unpredictable feelings as deep and wild as the sea.

* * *


End file.
